CH 147

Imperial Palace? Everyone’s eyes turned to Laura.

It wasn’t a friendly look. The Valentine’s people would of course be hostile to the Imperial Palace.

“Are you a kid who worked in the Imperial Palace?”

“But why are you here?”

“From what I’ve heard, the Young Madam brought her that was wandering through the Ingo Mountains.”

“What, then, was she a spy from the Imperial Palace?”

Laura, pale of the remark that she was a spy, staggered back and faltered.

“N, no! I, I’ve never set foot in such a grand place like the Imperial Palace!”

But Marronnier was sure. While she was staying at the Imperial Palace, she ran into a lot of servants, coming and going to get Aria stuff.

“No, I saw it clearly. You were one of the apprentice maids.”

“I think you’ve seen someone who looks like me. There’s no way they can use a kid like me in the Imperial Palace.”

“You were called Daisy in the Imperial Palace. I heard the maids say that you suddenly disappeared on the day of the hunting contest.”

There was a reason why Marronnier paid special attention to the apprentice maids among the many and many Imperial Palace servants.

It reminded her of her own childhood, and it was also because she was exactly the same age when Aria came to the Grand Duke’s castle.

“How, how could that be…”

Was the child even a child?

When she was suddenly nailed in the head, Laura gave an outright agitated response.

“Are you the one who entered Young Madam’s room?”

Marronnier, who used to be a soft squirrel, now asked, showing her teeth fiercely.

Laura shook her head.

“I, it’s not me!”

And as if she was running away, she backed away.

“If not, explain now!”

“Ack!”

Marronnier grabbed Laura’s hand and pulled her away. Then something trickled from Laura’s sleeve and fell onto the grass.

A necklace of water drop crystals. It was the cursed necklace that could contain divine power.

“…so for real?”

When the words that Marronnier threw to scare Laura were actually true, Marronnier herself was even more flustered.

To get to Aria’s room, Laura would have to go through the main palace entrance, where there were wolves and jaguar cages.

It was a zone of wild beasts that devoured intruders alive when they entered. Outsiders were never allowed in.

“…!”

When everyone was silent for a while without understanding the situation.

Laura quickly hung the necklace around her neck and widened the distance.

‘Oh, right. Come to think of it, that necklace has Gabriel’s divine power…… !’

With that necklace, anyone could use divine power. The child’s eyes were instantly dyed with a brilliant golden light.

Some employees, noticing the meaning of the eye color, seriously hardened their expressions.

“Divine power!”

“It was a child from Garcia!”

With the word Garcia, the mood changed in an instant. Incomparable to when Laura was known as a spy from the Imperial Palace.

“Little child, don’t be silly and stay down. I don’t want to hurt you…”

Ugh. A Black Falcon approached the child, but let out a small groan and stepped back.

Because of the barrier the child had wrapped around her with the divine powers, he could not get close.

‘In that brief moment, she was able to use divine power and spread a barrier right away. What is it?’

Aria observed Laura without hiding her complicated feelings. Laura was no ordinary child either.

“Grrr…”

Laura suddenly fixed her eyes on Silver, who barked sharply at her and revealed its teeth.

And then.

Silver stopped exposing hostility towards Laura, tilted its head back and howled loudly.

“Awwoo-!”

It was to call its friends.

“Huh?”

Seeing his own dog being controlled by the little child, Tristan twisted his lips in interest. With Black, the situation was no different.

Wild beasts running from the wolf and jaguar cage quickly surrounded the crowd in the garden.

“Grrrr.”

“Kuuuurr…”

They were ready to rush and bite at any minute.

Aria realized at the same time.

‘This child can control animals.’

The condition of the carnivorous rabbit she encountered in the Ingo Mountains was strange.

Laura passed safely through the wild beasts cages.

It was all Laura’s ability that the wolves and jaguars ended up revealing their teeth to their master.

Trapped among the wild beasts, the employees broke into a cold sweat.

“……What should we do?”

The Black Falcon asked in trouble.

If they fight to death, they may be able to win, but those are the beasts raised by Grand Duke Valentine and the Grand Prince himself. However, they are unable to approach Laura, the instigator of the matter, prematurely to subdue her because of the barrier that surrounded her.

Then Tristan answered without hesitation.

“The Holy Empire is also very stupid. Did they think that sending a little bloody little child would change the situation a little?”

And he drew the sword that was handed from the knight, and without hesitation aimed the sword at the wolves and Laura, and then spoke his words.

“How dare you ruin my daughter’s meaningful banquet. Where did you all get the crazy disease as a whole group…”

He looked like a devil Grand Duke, showing no sympathy. Whether the opponent was a child or an animal, there seemed to be no room for reconsideration if it was a spy.

“Annoying… It must have been a long time since I had organized the order.”

Lloyd also murmured grimly as he scrutinized the jaguars who rebelled against him.

Laura didn’t know that the Grand Duke and the Grand Prince would act like this, so she said in a bewildered way.

“You, you mean it doesn’t matter if the animal you raised gets hurt?”

“Unfortunately for you, we’re not merciful enough to put up with a dog that exposes its teeth to its master.”

Tristan said while knocking out the wolf that attacked first.

Did she not expect them to get knocked out? Laura froze for a moment with a face full of despair, then bit her nails, impatiently.

She seems to have realized too late that they would not even be able to compete with the Grand Duke and Grand Prince even if the wild beasts launch an all-out attack.

‘If this is the case, I will be caught.’

She has to drag on the time somehow.

“Then it doesn’t matter if they all die?”

What? Aria doubted her ears. The words she never thought would come out of a child’s mouth.

“I’m going to kill them all!”

At Laura’s words, the beasts suddenly changed their targets.

They were not just targeting people, but they were beginning to reveal murderous intent to their own friend as well.

And like dogs on the battlefield, they fought with the spirit to kill each other. It was like watching a war. There was Silver and Black in the mix.

“If you don’t let me go, I will have both people and animals fight to death!”

Laura, who was driven to the edge, cried desperately.

When Aria saw animals fighting each other exposing their teeth, she recalled a certain memory.

‘She suddenly disappeared on the day of the hunting contest…….’

Was it Laura’s fault that the animals were being killed in a mysterious way in the imperial hunting grounds?

Laura ‘could have manipulated animals to fight and injure each other.’

Then it wasn’t an assassin trying to lure the Princess. It may not be for the Princess, but Laura did that to lure Aria.

‘Then the child’s purpose is…….;

That was then.

“Kyaaa!”

One employee let out a terrible scream. He stood idly, not understanding the situation yet, and then became involved in the fight at the same time.

He grabbed his bitten leg and made a desperate face.

The wolf, completely lost in the smell of blood, opened his mouth wide.

“Kiing!”

At the same time, the wolf cried and walked away. It was because Sabina struck the wolf with a sword.

“Ma, Madam!”

“Get lost.”

“Gasp, yes!”

The employee, who was looking up to Sabina with a thrilled face, limped and disappeared when told to scram.

However, that was only for a while. The wild beasts intoxicated by mass madness still continued to hunt their friends.

“Kiiing, king…”

A wolf fell down, pouring blood nonstop.

A jaguar breathed heavily on the grass as if it would die at any moment.

A Black Hawk confronts a beast after unsuccessful attempts to approach Laura several times.

‘If this continues, the wolves and jaguars will fight until they die.’

Although she wondered how Laura could use such a powerful force that even the Siren’s abilities wouldn’t work. Soon, she had no time to think about it.

“Kyaaaak!”

Because she heard Marronnier’s scream.

“Everyone, stop! Otherwise, I’m going to kill this one.”

Laura threatened in a trembling voice. With a dagger engraved with a colorful pattern on Marronnier’s neck.

It was one of many weapons that Lloyd gave Aria to use as self-defense.

“You think I can’t do it?”

The child was clumsy and her hands were trembling helplessly.

But Marronnier got very nervous. Not because of the dagger the child wielded, but because of the wild beasts that surround her and reveal their teeth.

If she tries to resist, they will bite her right away.

“…it’s Aria’s handmaid.”

“It’s my daughter’s hand maid?”

Tristan and Lloyd released their lifted sword, constantly watching Aria’s eyes. Aria will be sad if that handmaid dies, they were thinking so.

Laura was smart. She finds out that Aria is Valentine’s powerhouse, so she found the weakest of Aria’s entourage.

‘Marronnier!’

As expected, Aria was visibly agitated and her eyes trembled slightly.

“Put down your weapons, everyone.”

Then Tristan, Lloyd, and Sabina, who were making a bitter expression, put down their swords. The Black Falcon also dropped their swords on the floor.

“And you.”

Laura said, pointing to Aria.

“Never sing, never speak, stand beside me.”

She also knew that Aria was a Siren.

This convinced Aria. The child was the one who injured the animals in the imperial hunting grounds.

‘The barrier was actually made to block the effect of the song.’

She was a pretty smart kid. It made it even more sad.

Aria, who stared somewhere in the air for a moment, nodded her head.

– I will.

And she approached obediently. It was only for a moment that she appeared agitated.

Aria’s face went calm again and she approached Laura without hesitation,

“You, don’t come too close!”

Surprised, Laura swung the dagger in the air threateningly, and used Marronnier as a hostage in earnest.

She pressed the blade to the limit to Marronnier’s neck, who was on her knees on the ground.

“Kyak!”

A solid red line appeared on Marronnier’s neck, and blood trickled down.

It was around the time when Aria’s expression hardened coldly.

“Now!”

The shaman, Carlin, who suddenly jumped out of the air, shouted. Then Gabriel, who moved with him, broke Laura’s barrier.

It was an accumulation of his own divine power.

“You’re late.”

While Lloyd and Tristan twitched and clicked their tongues, Aria quickly moved towards the bewildered Laura.

And she took a deep breath.

“Tis the last rose of summer, Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions, Are faded and gone.”

The song that ran through her head the moment she first saw Laura threatened by the carnivorous rabbit in the Ingo Mountains.

The moment she put the song out of her mouth, Aria knew what this song was.

‘A song for those who couldn’t leave.’

It was a song of requiem.

Soothes the souls of the dead and allows them to rest peacefully.

Lullabies for the soul.

“No flower of her kindred, No rose-bud is nigh, To reflect back her blushes, Or give sigh for sigh!”

Aria’s gentle tone filled the rose garden, which had never bloomed.

‘Why did this song come to mind?’

She knew without even thinking deeply.

Because Laura was no longer of this world.

Song quote: ‘The last rose of summer (by Thomas Moore), from Act 2 of Flotow’s opera Martha.